Sep 29, 2010

Interesting toilet tidbits:
* King Minos of Crete had the first flushing water closet recorded in history and that was over 2800 years ago.

* A toilet was discovered in the tomb of a Chinese king of the Western Han Dynasty that dates back to 206 BC to 24 AD.

* The ancient Romans had a system of sewers. They built simple outhouses or latrines directly over the running waters of the sewers that poured into the Tiber River

* Chamber pots were used during the middle ages. A chamber pot is a special metal or ceramic bowl that you used and then tossed the contents out (often out the window).

* In 1596, a flush toilet was invented and built for Queen Elizabeth I by her Godson, Sir John Harrington.

* The first patent for the flushing toilet was issued to Alexander Cummings in 1775.

* In 1829, the Tremont Hotel of Boston became the first hotel to have indoor plumbing, and had eight water closets built by Isaiah Rogers. Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in the homes of the rich and the better hotels.

* Beginning in 1910, toilet designs started changing away from the elevated water tank into the modern toilet with a close tank and bowl.

Thomas Crapper did not invent the toilet. Although he did have patent improvements for it.The crapper company went out of business in 1966.

World War I soldiers passing through England brought together Crapper's name and the toilet. They saw the words T. Crapper-Chelsea printed on the tanks and coined the slang "crapper" meaning toilet. The word 'crap' was around before Thomas Crapper.